5AA Australia: NZ General Election is in full swing September 11 2014

5AA Australia: Selwyn Manning and Peter Godfrey discuss the fallout from the dirty politics revelations and also how the political leaders are fairing.

The NZ General Election is in full swing.

Since we last talked, the fallout from the dirty politics revelations in Nicky Hager’s book has caused a firestorm.

It has caused the Minister of Justice to resign; the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security to initiate an investigation into how official intelligence documents were released to the National-led Government’s attack blogger in record time; and the Prime Minister initiated a Government Inquiry into allegations that the Minister of Justice Judith ‘Crusher’ Collins clandestinely organised a blog-led hit on the head of the Serious Fraud Office while she was Minister of Police.

With the National-led Government facing allegations of corruption that point directly to staff in the Prime Minister’s office you would expect the Nationals to be in free fall in the polls. Well, they have taken a hit, have sunk down to the mid 45% region. But… Labour too has lost ground. It now hovers down somewhere between 25-28% depending on the poll.

The beneficiaries of dirty politics it seems are the centrist parties NZ First and the Conservatives who are attacking each other in an attempt to leverage themselves up. The Greens have also been a benefactor probably due to a brand that displays honest politics.

And last night saw National Party leader John Key go head to head with Labour Party leader David Cunliffe. As expected it was a close contest with both leaders taking it to the opponent. The economy, fiscal policy, and housing were dominant themes.

Labour’s Cunliffe spoke strongly to detail and fiscal prudence, indicating a vision and plan to take NZ’s domestic economy up a notch, he spoke to social equity and fairness ideals and connected to policies that would achieve it.

National’s John Key spoke of strong stable government, of how the policies National has advanced over the past six years ought to be continued, and how NZ is on the cusp of something special.

Pundits judged the performances as near equal, although the New Zealand Herald lined up four commentators who called it 2 for David Cunliffe, 1 for John Key, and one called it even.

Kiwis can vote now, and Polling will close at 7pm on Saturday September 20. It will be close between the centre-right and centre-left blocs.

And on another matter…. Congratulations to Australia’s Wallabies for beating the Springboks in Rugby last week… I am sure the Springboks will be determined to wallop the All Blacks this weekend!

The All Blacks will face the Springboks for the 88th time in history and the first time this year in Wellington on Saturday. Also on Saturday the Wallabies will play Argentina’s the Pumas.

6 Comments

“Why does the right hate Labour so much? Labour’s not really left wing. They’re pretty much central.”

Yes Labour has moved centre.

I am 70 and remember Labour as a left wing party for the workers.

Guess someone else is now?

Pity though as Walter Nash & Michael Joseph Savage did great things for all kiwis, nut David is saying every chance “it’s all about people” guess he is pleading for us to give him a chance to be another model Labour Savage/Nash.

The name / tag the Conservatives chose is a deliberate one to smokescreen the fact that they are, in reality , a Far Right wing neo liberal party.

They have nothing to do with ‘ centrism’ …this is why Key didn’t want to be tarred with the same brush with them , preferring instead NZFirst.

Key knows he cannot afford to be seen cosying up to what is essentially another Act style outfit. He reads the peoples mood for a central type of govt. Which perpetrates the ‘balance’ aspect to which he and his govt are patently not.

Its interesting to note if one were to study a graph with a left to right scale that Rob Muldoon would now be on the Left with NZFirst,….which is not that very far from where the Greens are.

Virtually next door to each other.

THAT is how far NZ society and politics has gone to towards hard right politics.

If National should form a government by a slim majority this weekend, then I hope it will properly address serious issues of integrity and privacy that have been raised over recent weeks. Terrorism threats in Australia are insufficient reasons for National to continue behaving as if it has an overwhelming mandate to ignore the concerns of a large number of NZ citizens.